In media news, about 20 staffers at the Village Voice have written a letter of protest over the firing of investigative reporter James Ridgeway. Ridgeway, who wrote for the paper for 30 years, was fired just months after the Voice was bought out by New Times Media, a chain of weekly newspapers based in Phoenix. The Voice staffers wrote the firing “sends a terrible message as to the sort of coverage that the new ownership portends.” Major changes have already been seen at the paper since February 1 when the new owner of the paper Mike Lacey first traveled to New York to meet with Voice staffers. After that initial meeting the Voice’s prize winning press critic Sidney Schanberg quit. Veteran columnist Nat Hentoff reportedly also resigned and then reconsidered. According to one account of the meeting, the new owner criticized the news section of the Voice because it was full of commentary and criticism of the Bush administration. That same week the new owners cancelled the Voices’ online blog called “The Bush Beat.”